Hi Everyone
Always enjoy hearing peoples replies, and appreciate the advice the more experienced give so willingly........
Anyway to try and cut a long story short, just wondered peoples opinions.
I am a Graphic Designer by trade, which now bores me to tears, and having done picture framing (which is my passion), for well over 11 years, was wondering about a career change.
Most of my work comes from family and friends and realise there is probably no formula, but has anyone any ideas/tips of taking this to the next stage regards setting up in the business, and getting business from the general public/photographers/artists etc.
Hope you can help, and give me some inspiration.........
Jeremy
New Business
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markw
Jeremy
Basic stuff
Base your business where there are lots of potential customers - middle class residential areas with big old houses are good - they often have isolated groups of shops that do quite well.
Make sure access to the business is easy.
Dont confuse your customer - make sure your business shouts PICTURE FRAMER - Personal experience - I am in an old pub in the middle of a cotswold market town - it looks like a gallery - or a pub and I have to try quite hard to make people realise that its a framer - but I have been here 15 years so a few have latched on.
Dont compramise on quality.
Price realisticly - that means covering costs and paying yourself a wage.
Dont buy stuff you dont need (reps will love you if you do)
Be kind to reps - they can often give good advice.
Be confident and smile.
You start out by having an enthusiastic approach to the job - I still smile on the way to work - my wife says dementedly - but it is for me a great way to make a living - I was in graphic arts before framing - you have some very useful assets that others can spend a lifetime trying to achieve - sense of space and balance - its in the eye and is difficult to learn.
Good luck
ps
Join the FATG and go to local branch meetings - if there is such a thing in your area. Take your GCF - if nothing else it will be of some assurance to you and your customers that you are working to a defined standard.
Basic stuff
Base your business where there are lots of potential customers - middle class residential areas with big old houses are good - they often have isolated groups of shops that do quite well.
Make sure access to the business is easy.
Dont confuse your customer - make sure your business shouts PICTURE FRAMER - Personal experience - I am in an old pub in the middle of a cotswold market town - it looks like a gallery - or a pub and I have to try quite hard to make people realise that its a framer - but I have been here 15 years so a few have latched on.
Dont compramise on quality.
Price realisticly - that means covering costs and paying yourself a wage.
Dont buy stuff you dont need (reps will love you if you do)
Be kind to reps - they can often give good advice.
Be confident and smile.
You start out by having an enthusiastic approach to the job - I still smile on the way to work - my wife says dementedly - but it is for me a great way to make a living - I was in graphic arts before framing - you have some very useful assets that others can spend a lifetime trying to achieve - sense of space and balance - its in the eye and is difficult to learn.
Good luck
ps
Join the FATG and go to local branch meetings - if there is such a thing in your area. Take your GCF - if nothing else it will be of some assurance to you and your customers that you are working to a defined standard.
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Roboframer
Jeremy,
I said on The Grumble I would post a reply here 'over the weekend'. Well, last night and all today we have been transferring over 200 fish, frogs, newts and plants, from a large fishpond, to a small lake in our garden, I've just de-sludged myself in the shower and am still left with 2 ft of green gunge that the pump cannot cope with, and a liner held in place with established flags and plants.
'Rogatory's' post on The Grumble made me blush, I am no sort of business guru, but I'll do my best. My wife is the brain, I am the brawn!
Are you opening a shop or do you already have one and are going to expand the framing side? What sort of premises in what sort of location are you thinking of, or do you already have?
Seems you are starting off on the right foot, 11 years experience under your belt; not just jumping in with all the gear and no idea!
More to follow!
I said on The Grumble I would post a reply here 'over the weekend'. Well, last night and all today we have been transferring over 200 fish, frogs, newts and plants, from a large fishpond, to a small lake in our garden, I've just de-sludged myself in the shower and am still left with 2 ft of green gunge that the pump cannot cope with, and a liner held in place with established flags and plants.
'Rogatory's' post on The Grumble made me blush, I am no sort of business guru, but I'll do my best. My wife is the brain, I am the brawn!
Are you opening a shop or do you already have one and are going to expand the framing side? What sort of premises in what sort of location are you thinking of, or do you already have?
Seems you are starting off on the right foot, 11 years experience under your belt; not just jumping in with all the gear and no idea!
More to follow!
-
Not your average framer
- Posts: 11019
- Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
- Location: Devon, U.K.
- Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
- Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
- Location: Glorious Devon
Hi Jeremy,
Perhaps the best advice I can offer, is to fully understand pricing. Before I started I had been working in a busy framing workshop, but I had no experience of pricing. A friend let me copy his price chart, to get me started. I soon found I was not making a living and needed to know why. I created costings on a spreadsheet with different frame sizes and moulding widths. This showed me how to address the whole matter to my advantage.
I also no longer apply the same mark-up to all mouldings or to all materials. While carefully selecting my chioce of stock mouldings, I was able to acheive very high mark-ups on some mouldings because they were a good deal. However, there is a lot of cheap rubbish too - so you must be selective. Quality is how you create your reputation!
A computerised pricing program will ensure staff can operate without knowing too many details. You enter the moulding prices - you know the true mark-up. I don't use a computerised system for historical reasons, but a computerised system is an easy way to get started and can be quite a lot cheaper to run. e.g. I use NCR triplicate sets in pads and they're expensive compared to a simple computer print-out. I've seen EstLite, but my present pricings are not easily compatible with the EstLite way of doing things. However, I may still switch over to it at some future date - my regular customers might notice any price changes, but you are starting off and don't have that problem.
Hope this helps,
Mark
Perhaps the best advice I can offer, is to fully understand pricing. Before I started I had been working in a busy framing workshop, but I had no experience of pricing. A friend let me copy his price chart, to get me started. I soon found I was not making a living and needed to know why. I created costings on a spreadsheet with different frame sizes and moulding widths. This showed me how to address the whole matter to my advantage.
I also no longer apply the same mark-up to all mouldings or to all materials. While carefully selecting my chioce of stock mouldings, I was able to acheive very high mark-ups on some mouldings because they were a good deal. However, there is a lot of cheap rubbish too - so you must be selective. Quality is how you create your reputation!
A computerised pricing program will ensure staff can operate without knowing too many details. You enter the moulding prices - you know the true mark-up. I don't use a computerised system for historical reasons, but a computerised system is an easy way to get started and can be quite a lot cheaper to run. e.g. I use NCR triplicate sets in pads and they're expensive compared to a simple computer print-out. I've seen EstLite, but my present pricings are not easily compatible with the EstLite way of doing things. However, I may still switch over to it at some future date - my regular customers might notice any price changes, but you are starting off and don't have that problem.
Hope this helps,
Mark
Pricing for a new business
We have been established for nearly 20 years in a high street location, in a small city. In our 20 years we have regularly had shops open selling framed prints cheaply and not many have lasted more than 6 months. Getting your pricing right is probably the most important item to consider when starting out. All your costs rise incessently every year, so you need to increase your prices regularly too. If you don't have regular small increases, you will suddenly get an increase in UBR or rent or electricity and then be faced with having to implement a large price increase that your customers will notice enough to complain about.
Do a cash flow forecast on a spreadsheet with your estimated sales and costs. Then take 10% off your projected sales. Does it still give you a profit? Then increase your costs by 10%. Does it still show a profit?
Location is also important. Generally the quieter the location (and the cheaper the rent) the more you will need to spend on advertising to get people to your shop.
Depending on your location, your business will be seasonal. We are busiest in the winter months, and then slow down from May to September. So we don't spend all of our Christmas takings in January (well we try not too anyway!).
Don't promise what you can't achieve. If you tell a customer that a framing job will take a week, and then phone her after 3 days she will be delighted. If she calls in in a week and it is not ready, she will be annoyed.
Don't respond to the dozens of unsolicted phone calls offering last minute advertising slots available, offering to negotiate your business rates, offering a place in an internet directory, offering a really good deal on leccy prices or the hundreds of other scams that are about. I can honestly say that anything that I have bought, either for business or home, from an unsolicited phone call or door knock has been expensive or a con.
Best of luck with your business, we have enjoyed our time in this industry - I came from a Grocery background and find this business far better than trying to compete with Asda and Tesco.
Robin
Do a cash flow forecast on a spreadsheet with your estimated sales and costs. Then take 10% off your projected sales. Does it still give you a profit? Then increase your costs by 10%. Does it still show a profit?
Location is also important. Generally the quieter the location (and the cheaper the rent) the more you will need to spend on advertising to get people to your shop.
Depending on your location, your business will be seasonal. We are busiest in the winter months, and then slow down from May to September. So we don't spend all of our Christmas takings in January (well we try not too anyway!).
Don't promise what you can't achieve. If you tell a customer that a framing job will take a week, and then phone her after 3 days she will be delighted. If she calls in in a week and it is not ready, she will be annoyed.
Don't respond to the dozens of unsolicted phone calls offering last minute advertising slots available, offering to negotiate your business rates, offering a place in an internet directory, offering a really good deal on leccy prices or the hundreds of other scams that are about. I can honestly say that anything that I have bought, either for business or home, from an unsolicited phone call or door knock has been expensive or a con.
Best of luck with your business, we have enjoyed our time in this industry - I came from a Grocery background and find this business far better than trying to compete with Asda and Tesco.
Robin
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Roboframer
Location - Do you want big footfall, ease of parking or maybe both?
You get big footfall in pedestrianised shopping precincts, but how would you like to walk a mile from the top floor of a multi storey car park carrying a 4 x 3' framed mirror? All framers/galleries in my nearest town - Worthing, have failed (in the main precinct that is) Only one survives in the nearest in the next direction - Chichester.
None exist in smaller towns en-route such as Littlehampton and Bognor.
That says a lot!
Places that have a lot of footfall and parking on the doorstep are hard to find.
I went the other way, vilage location, but on a busy road with lots of free parking. then advertised with display ads in local yellow pages, plus the neighbouring one.
SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE.
Radio advertising is expensive, costs us £5,000 p.a. - but it works!
DIVERSIFY
We have taken this to a bit of an extreme as things have evolved around the needlecraft shop we originally took over. A lot of framers with shops call themselves 'galleries' - they sell framed pictures, a natural 'sideline'. Also good props to show framing techniques.
But what else can you offer to give people a reason to pass your competitors to get to you?
You should be aiming for an unfair share of the market, diversifying brings a diverse customer base, who come for one thing, and a lot of the time leave with it, plus something else, even if only an idea that will make them return. It's good when customers 'tell a friend' - word of mouth, but a lot of the time people that go out of their way to you BRING one!
MARKET RESEARCH
Put a compass in the map and draw three circles, with your place at the centre. One 5 miles out, one ten miles, one 25 miles. I can't do that, well I can, but half of that circle would be in the channel. Within that semi circle there are approx 2.5 million people.
Find out how many framers there are within each circle and how much they worry you, by checking them out, hopefully the best will be the furthest away! Aim to better them anyway, be it in presentation, preservation, choice, service and speed or all of those things.
If too many are within that 5 mile radius, move the centre (i.e. move the shop!)
What diversifications do THEY have? - Do something different. Would any single local radio station cover that area or most of it? How many other framers use it? (Only one other on mine) Aim to do something different to every other framer in each circle, be it inside or outside of framing, then add something else that no-one does within the WHOLE circle. Maybe not just any other FRAMER within the circle either!
There simply is not another shop like mine within my 25 mile radius, in fact I could probably go to 100 miles.
Guess what I sell most of? RIBBON! and people travel MILES for it! From WELL outside that 25 mile radius. When people travel like that, they want to make their journey worthwile, they will bring that cross stitch/photo/certificate/set of medals, etc, that has been kicking about in a drawer for years. Then they have to collect it, they'll also buy more stuff when they return.
How much do other framers charge in your area? You have to know; once you have established your prices you may find someone else whose quality is inferior and doing good business whilst charging twice the price (They are the best competitors!)
But you may also find quality framers with far less overheads than you who could easily charge more, but are cheaper than you. I think this is unlikely but I don't know your part of the world. These types around here are working from home or industrial units, with a good storefront, no amount of these types would worry me.
YOU CAN SELL DOWN BUT YOU CAN'T (ALWAYS) SELL UP.
Don't be afraid to quote prices that you know sound a lot. Start with what looks best, if it costs £300 and is too much, then £68 is not too bad! But start with that £68 and then say 'or this one would be £300' and you have two hopes - Bob Hope and no hope!
I have had an original oil (Adam Barsby) for £4,000 on my walls for about 6 years, it moved around from wall to wall, wall to window, had offers on it every week, accepted none. It helped sell hundreds of other pictures ... an £800 picture is expensive, but looks much more affordable next to a £4000 one!
Did an Adam Barsby window 2 weeks ago and sold it - DAMN!
I'd say capitalise on other skills, you're a graphic artist and can obviously incorporate that. But I'm a calligrapher - I keep very quiet about that these days. Just too busy framing!
Well, hope some of all that can be of use.
You get big footfall in pedestrianised shopping precincts, but how would you like to walk a mile from the top floor of a multi storey car park carrying a 4 x 3' framed mirror? All framers/galleries in my nearest town - Worthing, have failed (in the main precinct that is) Only one survives in the nearest in the next direction - Chichester.
None exist in smaller towns en-route such as Littlehampton and Bognor.
That says a lot!
Places that have a lot of footfall and parking on the doorstep are hard to find.
I went the other way, vilage location, but on a busy road with lots of free parking. then advertised with display ads in local yellow pages, plus the neighbouring one.
SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE.
Radio advertising is expensive, costs us £5,000 p.a. - but it works!
DIVERSIFY
We have taken this to a bit of an extreme as things have evolved around the needlecraft shop we originally took over. A lot of framers with shops call themselves 'galleries' - they sell framed pictures, a natural 'sideline'. Also good props to show framing techniques.
But what else can you offer to give people a reason to pass your competitors to get to you?
You should be aiming for an unfair share of the market, diversifying brings a diverse customer base, who come for one thing, and a lot of the time leave with it, plus something else, even if only an idea that will make them return. It's good when customers 'tell a friend' - word of mouth, but a lot of the time people that go out of their way to you BRING one!
MARKET RESEARCH
Put a compass in the map and draw three circles, with your place at the centre. One 5 miles out, one ten miles, one 25 miles. I can't do that, well I can, but half of that circle would be in the channel. Within that semi circle there are approx 2.5 million people.
Find out how many framers there are within each circle and how much they worry you, by checking them out, hopefully the best will be the furthest away! Aim to better them anyway, be it in presentation, preservation, choice, service and speed or all of those things.
If too many are within that 5 mile radius, move the centre (i.e. move the shop!)
What diversifications do THEY have? - Do something different. Would any single local radio station cover that area or most of it? How many other framers use it? (Only one other on mine) Aim to do something different to every other framer in each circle, be it inside or outside of framing, then add something else that no-one does within the WHOLE circle. Maybe not just any other FRAMER within the circle either!
There simply is not another shop like mine within my 25 mile radius, in fact I could probably go to 100 miles.
Guess what I sell most of? RIBBON! and people travel MILES for it! From WELL outside that 25 mile radius. When people travel like that, they want to make their journey worthwile, they will bring that cross stitch/photo/certificate/set of medals, etc, that has been kicking about in a drawer for years. Then they have to collect it, they'll also buy more stuff when they return.
How much do other framers charge in your area? You have to know; once you have established your prices you may find someone else whose quality is inferior and doing good business whilst charging twice the price (They are the best competitors!)
But you may also find quality framers with far less overheads than you who could easily charge more, but are cheaper than you. I think this is unlikely but I don't know your part of the world. These types around here are working from home or industrial units, with a good storefront, no amount of these types would worry me.
YOU CAN SELL DOWN BUT YOU CAN'T (ALWAYS) SELL UP.
Don't be afraid to quote prices that you know sound a lot. Start with what looks best, if it costs £300 and is too much, then £68 is not too bad! But start with that £68 and then say 'or this one would be £300' and you have two hopes - Bob Hope and no hope!
I have had an original oil (Adam Barsby) for £4,000 on my walls for about 6 years, it moved around from wall to wall, wall to window, had offers on it every week, accepted none. It helped sell hundreds of other pictures ... an £800 picture is expensive, but looks much more affordable next to a £4000 one!
Did an Adam Barsby window 2 weeks ago and sold it - DAMN!
I'd say capitalise on other skills, you're a graphic artist and can obviously incorporate that. But I'm a calligrapher - I keep very quiet about that these days. Just too busy framing!
Well, hope some of all that can be of use.
-
Not your average framer
- Posts: 11019
- Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
- Location: Devon, U.K.
- Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
- Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
- Location: Glorious Devon
Hi,
My own shop is a less desireable location, limited footfall, a small rural Devon town, originally three well established competitors, yellow lines and being at the wrong end of the town, but I am still worked off my feet! My only advertising is in the parish magazine. I don't have a modern shop front or a spaceous shop - the Morso, underpiner, Keencut 4000, much of my materials and a 4ft by 6ft bench occupy three quarters of the floor space in the main part of my shop and I have two other benches in the two rooms behind. There is not much space for customers to wander around at all, my joke is there is not enough room to swing a mouse.
My rent and rates are amazingly low and that really made all the difference when we first started. I never wanted to be working in full view of the public, almost all of our equipment is twenty years old or more, but people say "this is a real picture framers", obviously they are not qualified to make such a judgement. My success has been in spite of three other well established local framers (last one packed up before Christmas). Am I better than my original competition? I doubt it! I'm often quite slow getting through the workload. I'm probably just in a quirky old fashioned looking shop which looks completely different to most other shops. I don't have nice shop fittings, stylish lighting, or soft carpets. Everything is very basic, I never planned it that way - I was almost broke when I started and could not do fit the shop the way I would like.
Catchment area - We have customers who live in London, the Midlands and even Manchester, but visit relatives who live locally and they bring their framing to me. Why? No idea!
After I had my heart attack, I put my prices up to try and limit my workload - It didn't work - I got more business, not less and better quality items to frame in quality materials. Before this I was convinced that I needed to keep the price down. I was wrong! Don't under sell, it never worked for me! I now have to employ a part time framing assistant, first for one day a week, now for two. People tell me business is down, but we're still growing!
It's always possible that my type of business might not work elsewhere - I just have no way of knowing, but if I have learnt anything through this it's this: Be yourself, don't be afraid to be different and remember it's meant to be fun too! Along the way, many customers have become friends too! I hope you to will enjoy framing too and wish you success.
Cheers,
Mark
My own shop is a less desireable location, limited footfall, a small rural Devon town, originally three well established competitors, yellow lines and being at the wrong end of the town, but I am still worked off my feet! My only advertising is in the parish magazine. I don't have a modern shop front or a spaceous shop - the Morso, underpiner, Keencut 4000, much of my materials and a 4ft by 6ft bench occupy three quarters of the floor space in the main part of my shop and I have two other benches in the two rooms behind. There is not much space for customers to wander around at all, my joke is there is not enough room to swing a mouse.
My rent and rates are amazingly low and that really made all the difference when we first started. I never wanted to be working in full view of the public, almost all of our equipment is twenty years old or more, but people say "this is a real picture framers", obviously they are not qualified to make such a judgement. My success has been in spite of three other well established local framers (last one packed up before Christmas). Am I better than my original competition? I doubt it! I'm often quite slow getting through the workload. I'm probably just in a quirky old fashioned looking shop which looks completely different to most other shops. I don't have nice shop fittings, stylish lighting, or soft carpets. Everything is very basic, I never planned it that way - I was almost broke when I started and could not do fit the shop the way I would like.
Catchment area - We have customers who live in London, the Midlands and even Manchester, but visit relatives who live locally and they bring their framing to me. Why? No idea!
After I had my heart attack, I put my prices up to try and limit my workload - It didn't work - I got more business, not less and better quality items to frame in quality materials. Before this I was convinced that I needed to keep the price down. I was wrong! Don't under sell, it never worked for me! I now have to employ a part time framing assistant, first for one day a week, now for two. People tell me business is down, but we're still growing!
It's always possible that my type of business might not work elsewhere - I just have no way of knowing, but if I have learnt anything through this it's this: Be yourself, don't be afraid to be different and remember it's meant to be fun too! Along the way, many customers have become friends too! I hope you to will enjoy framing too and wish you success.
Cheers,
Mark
-
markw
-
Not your average framer
- Posts: 11019
- Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
- Location: Devon, U.K.
- Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
- Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
- Location: Glorious Devon
Hi,
I also think it's easier starting up in a smaller town than a larger town. The overheads are often much less, but also the pace of life is such that you can get away with being a bit slow sometimes. I expect that in a busy town, people don't like to wait. I'm in a small town close to Dartmoor and at least 50% of my customers don't live in the town, but in little villages, hamlets, isolated farm houses, etc.
Getting people to know that you're there is not easy. Some people walk past my shop every day and then one day say "How long have you been here?". The simple answer is that it takes time.
There's a steady stream of people moving into the area to retire and I get regular business due to glass and frames dropped by the removals people. This is a great way of getting introduced to new customers and this often results in good long term business too!
Make sure you know how to put people in contact with the local art or cross stitch club. These people are just discovering they have extra time on their hands and often the picture with the broken glass was their own work, but done a long time ago. They often only need a nudge in the right direction and they will soon need their latest effort to be framed - Hopefully by you!
Cheers,
Mark
I also think it's easier starting up in a smaller town than a larger town. The overheads are often much less, but also the pace of life is such that you can get away with being a bit slow sometimes. I expect that in a busy town, people don't like to wait. I'm in a small town close to Dartmoor and at least 50% of my customers don't live in the town, but in little villages, hamlets, isolated farm houses, etc.
Getting people to know that you're there is not easy. Some people walk past my shop every day and then one day say "How long have you been here?". The simple answer is that it takes time.
There's a steady stream of people moving into the area to retire and I get regular business due to glass and frames dropped by the removals people. This is a great way of getting introduced to new customers and this often results in good long term business too!
Make sure you know how to put people in contact with the local art or cross stitch club. These people are just discovering they have extra time on their hands and often the picture with the broken glass was their own work, but done a long time ago. They often only need a nudge in the right direction and they will soon need their latest effort to be framed - Hopefully by you!
Cheers,
Mark